Water vs Ice
by Fox McCloude
Summary: It's an important day for Misty. She's facing her mentor and heroine, Lorelei, to become her successor in the Kanto Elite Four, and she's very close to win. But there's one person she wants to be there for her triumph, and that's Ash. Written for the Day 1 of the PokéShipping Week 2019, theme: "Elite Four Misty".


**Water vs Ice**

**By Fox McCloude.**

**Disclaimer: **Pokémon and all related characters belong to Satoshi Tajiri, Nintendo and GAMEFREAK. All rights reserved.

* * *

_**Indigo Plateau, Pokémon League Stadium…**_

It wasn't easy to fight a mentor, let alone a heroine. But that's just how things turned out.

That day, the traditional battlefield in the Indigo Stadium had been replaced by a large center pool, framed by a couple of ice caps on each side. The perfect stage for Water and Ice-type Pokémon, which was appropriate as the two combatants were specialists on said types.

The scoreboard showed, on the left side, four darkened icons in a team composed of Dewgong, Lapras, Jynx and Cloyster, with a Slowbro currently active and the sixth one with a question mark, under the mugshot of a mature-looking woman, with dark red hair and glasses over her icy blue eyes. On the right side, there were five darkened icons showing Starmie, Corsola, Kingdra, Vaporeon and Golduck, with the last active one being a Gyarados, under the face of a young woman who looked no older than twenty, with red-orange hair tied in a side ponytail and aquamarine eyes.

Teacher and disciple were facing each other in a decisive battle. Elite Four Lorelei versus Cerulean Gym Leader Misty, and they were approaching the final round.

"Gyarados, Hydro Pump!" the younger redhead ordered.

"ROAAAAAAR!"

The marine serpent straightened himself upwards, and fired from its jaws a massive and powerful water torrent, straight for their foe's active Pokémon.

"Slowbro, stop it with Psychic!" Lorelei countered.

Slowbro lifted both hands and tried to stop it with his mind energies and willpower. Unfortunately, the attack's power was much greater than he could take, and when his focus faltered, the water stream flew through and dragged him along, crashing him against an icy mount, crumbling apart.

As the debris fell aside, Slowbro was knocked down, his arms and legs spread open and his eyes completely blank.

"Slowbro is unable to battle!" the judge declared raising the green flag. "Gyarados is the winner!"

"What a great match!" the commentator voiced, as the crowd broke into victory cries. "It all comes down to this, ladies and gentlemen! Both Lorelei and Misty have only one Pokémon left, and this is gonna be the decisive bout! Will the disciple be a worthy succesor to her mentor?!"

As Lorelei returned her downed Pokémon, Misty took a look at the stands, and she couldn't help but sigh. The fight had reached the final bout… and _he_ was nowhere to be found.

_'Ash… you promised you'd come to see me. Where are you?'_

About half a year had passed since then, before she went to train under Lorelei. It was the last time they saw each other in person before Ash departed in another Pokémon journey.

…

_"The Elite Four, for real? Wow, that's a great opportunity!"_

_When Lorelei contacted Misty, the Elite Four member made her promise she wouldn't tell anybody, as it was supposed to be top secret until she officially announced her retirement. However, Misty was so excited, she felt she would explode if she didn't tell someone._

_Thus, she asked Ash to come visit her as soon as he had the chance._

_"I know, I'm really thrilled about it," Misty said as she held her chest. "Lorelei is my heroine, and she wants me to succeed her in the Elite Four!"_

_"I'm happy for you, I mean it," Ash said with full sincerity. "But I don't get it, if it's supposed to be top secret, why are you telling me about it?"_

_"Come on Ash, it's obvious. My sisters would spread the word all over town in less than a day," the redhead replied. "If I had to tell someone, I trust my best friend/boyfriend will keep the secret for me."_

_Ash smiled at her, and Misty caught that he even blushed at the vote of trust. As exciting as it was, when she called for Ash to come see her, she made him promise that whatever they talked about, he'd never break a promise of that kind._

_And that was true especially since they began dating each other, while the two had to often deal with the perks of a long-distance relationship. After all, she knew well that for Ash, the journey would hardly be over even after winning a tournament or visiting a new region._

_"Anyway, congratulations, Misty, this is really awesome," the black-haired boy continued. "So then, what's the plan? What are you and Lorelei going to do?"_

_"Well, she said she wanted us to go to the Sevii Islands," the redhead explained. "Says that way I'll have time to hone my skills, and learn enough to be able to beat her. And since it's a bit off the road, we'll be able to train with no one to bother us."_

_"Wow, I'm so jealous," Ash admitted. "What I'd give for a rematch with her before she retires."_

_"Haha, sorry, you'll have to make do with being a spectator," Misty chuckled. "Because, I'm sure you'll come and see me when we have the official battle, right?"_

_"Are you kidding me? There's no way I'd miss out that match. Of course I'll be there to root for you."_

_"You promise?" Misty asked, raising her pinky finger._

_Ash raised his eyebrows, as if hesitating. Of course, that gesture was just her way to make her point about how important this was to her. _

_"I promise." He raised his own pinky finger to intertwine it with hers._

_And so, the promise was sealed. Ash never broke a promise made to a friend, let alone _her _as she was his girlfriend. That gave her assurance that, when the day came, he'd be there to see her._

…

They had promised, but the battle had come to its final bout, and Ash hadn't shown up. Misty know that if he hadn't come it probably was because of circumstances out of his power, things that weren't his fault, but even so… she wanted him to be here on this important day.

"Now both trainers only have one Pokémon to go! What will Lorelei's last Pokémon be?" the commentator asked, pulling Misty out of her thoughts.

"Misty, you've been a worthy opponent, and a great apprentice," Lorelei declared. "I chose you as my successor, and I'm pleased with how far you've come. But you still have one more obstacle to overcome. Go!"

Lorelei threw her last Pokéball, revealing her final Pokémon for this match. Much to the surprise of Misty and many others, it was a Sandslash, but not the one she'd normally expect, but its Alolan variant, colored blue and white.

Misty had never seen it during trainings, but it made sense Lorelei would keep an ace in the hole for this match. She couldn't make things easy by letting her know everything she'd do, and although she'd managed to hold her own so far, even the Pokémon she already knew had one or two surprises waiting to throw her off.

As soon as the judge gave them the cue to continue, Misty didn't miss a beat. She'd have to go all out from the start.

"Gyarados, Fire Blast!"

With a mighty roar, Gyarados blew a torrent of flames, which quickly formed into a five-point kanji. Against an Ice/Steel-type Pokémon, fire seemed the most obvious choice.

However, Lorelei hadn't made it to the Elite Four for nothing, and obviously it'd take more than type advantages to beat her.

"Blizzard," the woman commanded with an icy voice.

Sandslash opened his mouth and blew a strong artic current to counter Gyarados' flames. Both attacks pushed as they tried to overpower the other for several seconds, going forward and backward at intervals.

But Sandslash's Blizzard ultimately won out, extinguishing Gyarados's flames and pushing the marine serpent backwards.

"Hydro Pump!" Misty exclaimed. Seeing that fire didn't give any results, she decided to try water instead.

"Gyro Ball," Lorelei replied in turn.

At Lorelei's command, Sandslash curled on himself, and protruding his spikes started spinning vertiginously in the air. The water stream hit him, but the spinning deflected it and splashed it to the sides. Without stopping, Sandslash flew through the watery current until he hit Gyarados right in the face.

Then, describing a curve in the air, he landed upon one of the icy mounts on the opposite side of the field, uncurling and awaiting his next order.

"Hail," the Elite Four trainer commanded, snapping her fingers.

Sandslash raised his head and started blowing at the sky. Spiral dark clouds instantly began to form over the battlefield, and snow and ice shards began raining on them.

"A little snow isn't gonna stop us. Gyarados, Fire Blast again!" Misty cried out.

Gyarados roared again, blowing his fire attack. However, a split-second before it hit Sandslash, he disappeared in a white blur. The Fire Blast destroyed the icy mount with a great explosion, but Sandslash reappeared on a further one, completely unharmed.

"Keep firing, Gyarados, don't stop!" Misty insisted.

"Dodge and use Icicle Spear," Lorelei countered.

As Gyarados continued to shoot flame explosions one after another, Sandslash moved out of sight, and countered with a round of icy projectiles from his quills. Sandslash repeated the sequence: he vanished to dodge the Fire Blast, reappeared again to fire a round of ice spikes straight to Gyarados' face, forcing him to flinch and interrupt his attack, and when he could resume his fire, the ice porcupine vanished once more in a flash step. Adding to that, the hail continued to cause him annoyances as it rained non-stop.

´"The Fire Blasts from Misty's Gyarados destroy the field, what great power!" the commentator shouted. "But it won't do them any good if he's unable to land a hit on Sandslash, who moves too fast for them!"

Yeah, way too fast. From what Misty recalled, Alolan Sandslash had Snow Cloak as their default ability, to hide in the mist during a hailstorm, but this one wasn't hiding at all. He was always in plain sight except when dodging the attacks, only vanishing for a second, which meant he was increasing his movement speed.

"Slush Rush," Misty finally deduced the ability. "You were saving it all this time for today, weren't you, Lorelei?"

"I'm really sorry, Misty." The Elite Four member folded her arms. "Even if I was your teacher in the past few months, I couldn't make things easy for you. If you want to beat me, you'll have to give me everything you've got. Will you be able to crush my glacial barrier?"

The glacial barrier. Of course, that was Lorelei. Outside of battle, she was a kind and sociable woman, as relaxed as water flowing through a river. But in battle, she became a glacier, cold and ruthless, one that nobody could easily break.

She'd come this far, but could she really best her mentor?

"MISTYYYYYYYYYY!"

The sound of a voice screaming her name out loud broke the younger redhead's thoughts. Lorelei turned as well, and many other looks quickly glanced at the scream's source.

Misty's heart skipped a beat when she saw who it was. There was him, his hat in a hand, his hair a complete mess and his other hand clenching his chest as he breathed heavily. It looked like he'd run a complete marathon, and she guessed that was probably the case.

_'Ash...'_ The Gym Leader smiled as her heart began racing in excitement and joy. He took longer than she'd wanted, but he was there. He fulfilled his promise after all.

"C'mon, Misty!" he shouted, leaning into the handrail and raising a fist in the air. "If Lorelei's like a glacier, you're like the sea in a tempest! Show her how strong you really are!"

"Pika, Pikachupi!" Pikachu yelled as well.

"Of course I will! Watch closely!" the girl replied as she turned back to her former-mentor-now-opponent. "You're right, Lorelei. It's time to show you everything I have."

That said, she took a hand towards her side ponytail, now long enough to fall over her shoulder. Just like Lorelei, she'd kept a card up her sleeve for this battle, and it was time to put it to good use. It was the decisive moment.

"Beautiful, brave and powerful! My blue sweetheart! MEGA EVOLVE!"

Gyarados roared again, and while Lorelei and Sandslash were momentarily shocked at the maneuver, Misty touched her Keystone. At the same time, the Gyaradosite in the serpent's forehead emerged, and both stones emitted energy tendrils, linking up with each other.

"Oh, this is madness, ladies and gentlemen!" the commentator exclaimed. "The Cerulean Gym leader has brought her own surprise for this match! We'll be seeing a Mega Evolution!"

The show of lights and multicolored energy quickly took over, and after a dazzling rainbow swirl all over that shook the water in the battlefield, the marine serpent emerged, with his fins bigger, his scales darker, and his body more robust.

"ROAAAAAAAAAARR!" Mega Gyarados announced himself, shaking the entire arena with that single roar.

Once over the shock, Lorelei smiled in satisfaction. The time to fight seriously had finally come.

"Gyarados, Hydro Pump!"

"Sandslash, Blizzard!"

The water stream met head on the icy wind, and once more they began an attack clash. This time, however, the Hydro Pump overpowered the Blizzard, hitting Sandslash hard and crashing him against another mount.

A few seconds later, he made his way back among the debris with his claws, and glared defiantly at Gyarados, still more than up to keep fighting.

"Impressive," Lorelei acknowledged. "I think it's time to bring other resources. Sandslash, Gyro Ball and Icicle Spear!"

Once more, Sandslash curled on himself, except this time his quills protruded much more before he started spinning in the air, like a flying saucer. As he arched towards Gyarados, his quills fired icy projectiles, inconveniencing the serpent and forcing him to shake and coil to try and avoid it.

The projectiles were very distracting, and Sandslash flew too fast so as to lock on him for a shot. Clearly taking advantage of being a smaller target, and speedy enough to avoid taking hits, and all the power of their attacks would do them no good if they couldn't land any.

First things first; she had to remove the hail so Sandslash couldn't move that fast. Plus, that would help her set her final trap to win this match.

"Gyarados, Rain Dance!"

With another deafening roar, after taking another hit from the ice saucer, the storm clouds over the battlefield shifted, and in seconds the hailstorm turned into a downpour. With the weather change, Sandslash lost his speed boost, and had to land back on the battlefield.

Even so, neither Sandslash nor Lorelei gave any shows of being surprised at that. It looked like a rather obvious move.

"Nice play, Misty, shifting the weather I set up for your own. But it'll take more than that to defeat me and Sandslash."

"I know, this is just the first step to our victory," Misty replied. "Now, Hurricane!"

From Gyarados' mouth, out came a violent wind vortex. The rain gave it a boost, widening its attack radius and pushing Sandslash before he could react. The Ice/Steel-type barely managed to hold with his claws onto one of the icy mounts, but the wind strength increased by the second, and he finally gave in and was dragged into the air.

"Sandslash!" Lorelei shouted.

"This is our chance, Gyarados!" Misty pointed with her finger. "Crunch!"

Gyarados opened wide his jaws, ready to chomp really hard on the ice porcupine, while he was still spinning out in the air out of control. He seemed ready to snack on him to finally seal the match.

"Hold on, counter with Metal Burst!" Lorelei managed to shout.

In a desperate move, right before Gyarados shut his jaws on him, Sandslash raised his hands and stopped them. Pushing with all four limbs, he applied every ounce of strength he had as a silver glow began covering him.

A few seconds later, there was an energy explosion and Gyarados was knocked backwards, while Sandslash fell off his mouth before landing on the field. The marine serpent rose once more, glaring at his foe.

"The battle is at a stalemate, ladies and gentlemen!" the commentator shouted. "Clearly neither side is going to pull back! What will come out of all this?"

Despite losing the speed boost from the hail, Sandslash still had the edge of being smaller and nimbler. Every time Misty tried to attack, either at point-blank or long range, Sandslash would use Gyro Ball to sneak away, launching an almost immediate counterattack. The fact his blows actually made damage didn't help. Gyarados was tough, but they couldn't rely on that forever.

"Misty, don't give in!" Ash shouted from the stands. "You guys can win, come on!"

"Pika, pika, Pikachupi!"

The cheers from the trainer and his partner gave her strength, and she really appreciated them. But in that moment she needed to think about something to prevent Sandslash from slipping away.

And when she glanced once more at Ash and Pikachu, the idea came to her head like a flash of lightning.

"Gyarados, hide underwater!"

"ROAAAAARR!" Without wasting a second, Gyarados dove into the water and disappeared from sight. Under the water surface his shadow began moving ominously towards Sandslash.

Both the porcupine and his trainer were left dumbfounded at this sudden decision. From her spot, Misty could see Lorelei had no clue of what they were up to, and all the better for them.

They couldn't attack while underwater, so they remained that way, building up expectations.

Before giving out her command, the former Cerulean Gym Leader glanced at her childhood friend, who smiled upon realizing what she was doing. Even without uttering a word, she knew he was saying "Go for it!"

"Hurricane!" she shouted, to everyone's shock.

Instantly, the ice under Sandslash broke apart into pieces, and a violent tornado formed around him, dragging the water and the scattered icy shards all around.

For the first time during that bout, Lorelei's icy and calm demeanor broke apart completely. The Elite Four trainer gave a few steps forward on her platform, reacting to her Pokémon now being trapped in the vortex that formed around him.

"Sandslash, if you can hear me, get out of there with Gyro Ball!"

Even though the noise caused by the water somewhat drowned it, they caught Sandslash's response cry. Nobody knew what was going on inside the whirlpool, but judging by the noises they heard later, the porcupine did several attempts to fly out and escape.

Sadly for him, the wall was too high, and he didn't have enough room inside to build momentum and get out from above. He kept trying and failing several times, and Misty smiled with satisfaction. All she had to do was keep it up for a little more to tire him out.

"This is insane! I mean, what an amazing strategy!" the commentator said out loud. "Misty and Gyarados have left Sandslash trapped with nowhere to run! What will Lorelei do now?"

"We're not gonna find out!" Misty yelled in response. "Gyarados, get ready with a Fire Blast!"

Said and done; Gyarados emerged from the water and stopped fueling the whirlpool from below. The wind blasts slowly went down. As the serpent charged up his fire attack between his jaws, Misty could see once the water went down that Sandslash was panting, probably from all his tries to escape before.

Now it was their time to end the match.

"We're not going down without fighting. Metal Burst!" Lorelei called in response.

Misty managed to catch how Sandslash curled upon himself and started to glow with metallic energy. Since they couldn't dodge anymore, they were gambling on enduring the attack and fire one of their own as retaliation.

The fire kanji hit true, and miraculously Sandslash survived it. With his last breath, he pushed both hands forward to send his counterattack at Gyarados, in the form of a powerful silver beam.

"Stop it with Hydro Pump!" Misty shouted.

With a last roar, Gyarados fired his water stream to meet Sandslash's beam. Both attacks impacted against each other in the center of the field, creating a yin-yang-like bomb of sorts, with the blue and silver colors swirling on each other. It finally exploded in a huge flash, shaking all the water aroun the battle field, and forcing the trainers and spectators to look away briefly.

Finally, once the view was clear, the results were seen. Both Gyarados and Sandslash looked pretty damaged, breathing heavily as they glared into each other's eyes. The outcome was unclear. The first one to falter would lose…

"Sand… slash…"

And after a few seconds, Sandslash winced in pain, slumping over the field. The match was finally over.

"Sandslash is unable to battle!" the referee declared. "Gyarados is the winner, and victory is for Misty from Cerulean City!"

"And so it ends, ladies and gentlemen! It was a long and harsh battle all the way, but in the end, the disciple has surpassed the teacher! What a great battle!"

"We won…" Misty said, holding onto her chest, feeling how her heart seemed to relax at long last, after all the excitement from the battle, only to start beating superfast mere seconds later. "We did it, Gyarados, we won!"

"Well done!" Ash's voice cried out among the spectators, and she saw him raise his fists in the air, while Pikachu waved a couple of paper fans with her face in victory.

Not caring one bit for the protocols, the former Cerulean Gym Leader got rid of any shred of shame and allowed herself to jump in victory as she raised her arms into the air, screaming like a little girl. It'd been the hardest battle she ever fought, but in the end she had come out victorious.

And the best of all, Ash was there to see her, even if just at the end.

…

With the match concluded, and once the ice and water field was retracted, the ascension ceremony came next. Lorelei gave the usual retirement speech as a member of the Elite Four while Misty waited anxiously for her moment to intervene. Around her, the other current members who formed the quartet were also present: Koga, the former Fuchsia Gym Leader, Bruno and a woman named Karen. On top of them was Lance, the current Kanto Regional Champion.

During that time, however, Misty's head was focused on one thing, or rather, on someone. As soon as the ceremony concluded, the first thing to do was to look for him. She had a few words to say after all.

"And now, I officially step down and cede my place to my young disciple," Lorelei concluded. "Misty Waterflower of Cerulean, welcome to the Kanto Elite Four!"

The applause quickly erupted, and Misty felt overwhelmed. It was fortunate that she didn't have to give any acceptance speech, just receive from her mentor's hands the golden plate with her name, accrediting her as an Elite Four member.

"I'm very proud of you, Misty. I knew you'd surpass me one day," Lorelei said after delivering the plate. "I couldn't have chosen a better successor."

"Thanks, Lorelei, it means a lot to me," she replied.

As the applause continued, Misty tried to look for Ash and Pikachu with her eyes. In the middle of the crowd they'd vanished from sight, but she knew they still had to be there. There was no way they could be gone already.

* * *

_**Later, at dusk…**_

Once the stadium was cleared and the crowd left, Misty decided to walk away. Knowing Ash, he'd probably be waiting to approach her as soon as he had the chance, and preferably when both were alone. Much better for her that way.

And indeed, as she walked through the exit corridor, a silhouette awaited her, standing in front of the setting sun. Even with the scarce illumination, she knew perfectly who it was, and even among the shadows she could see him smiling.

"Hey." He waved a hand at her.

Without uttering a word, she smiled too and ran off to meet with him. So much time without seeing each other, and right then and there, there was only one thing she wanted to do…

"Ow, ow, ow! Hey, what're you doing? Ow!"

Namely, grabbing his cheeks and pull them. Not too painfully, of course, just enough for him to feel it.

"Your punishment for coming in late," she said with mocking anger, after letting go. "You almost missed out the match!"

"Hey, it's not my fault, my flight was delayed," he excused himself. "As soon as I exited the airport I had to make Charizard bring me here, but he reached his limit when we came to the city's entrance. I had to run all the way here."

"I can see that," she said.

"Pikachu," the mouse agreed, making a gesture that clearly said 'Some things never change'.

Sure enough, Ash hair and clothes were a mess, and he even had some dirt on the knees suggesting he probably tripped and fell at some point. Clearly he did his best to make it here, and she couldn't do any less but appreciate it.

Without further words, she smiled and jumped to his neck, giving him a big hug and kiss by surprise. He quickly recomposed himself and relaxed, returning them the same way.

"I'm so glad you made it. You have no idea how much I wanted to see you."

"Me too, I missed you," he replied. "So then, Miss Elite Four Misty, how about we go celebrate your victory together? Shall we go to an all-you-can-eat buffet?"

"On you?" she asked, making them both chuckle before kissing each other again.

Misty felt really happy that day. Not just because of being recognized by his heroine to become her successor, or being part of the elite trainers of Kanto. What made her the happiest was that Ash was there for her, and that he could witness the moment, if only in the end.

After all, a triumph like that was only sweeter when shared with the person she loved.

**FIN.**

* * *

**Author's notes:**

And with this, we start the PokéShipping week 2019, people. Last year I didn't feel very inspired to take part, but this time I decided I'll come with everything. Although unlike the ones I posted in 2017, I decided to post these as separate stories. Partly so as to put different character tags, which obviously won't be enough if I put them all together.

So, for some trivia, I actually voted for three of the chosen themes, including this one of Elite Four Misty. For a long time, I had wanted to write a Misty vs. Lorelei match, and you have no idea how much I crossed my fingers to get this one chosen (lucky me XD). In fact, several of the ones that were picked, even though I didn't vote them due to the seven-theme limit, I did consider them, and even had some tentative ideas, so it worked on my favor. Some of them were revisited from old works to see how they turned out now. For the record, the general plot here is based on a work made **MajinLu, **one of the best PokéShipping writers and artists I've met (too bad she's no longer active in the fandom), except that I inverted the roles, making Ash the one coming to see Misty's match instead of the other way around.

Lastly, in the teams used here, Lorelei's Alolan Sandslash and Misty's Golduck and Vaporeon, are nods to the Let's Go! games, although just so we're clear, said Golduck is NOT out favorite yellow duck evolved. If you wanna make yourselves a headcanon, feel free to assume Misty took another trip to the Orange Islands and met that wild Golduck to catch it. The Kingdra on the other hand, that's our Horsea, since the little guy saw little to no action after being caught, which is a real shame.

So, that pretty much wraps Day 1 for this week, hope you enjoyed it. See you tomorrow with another shot!

**P.S:** As the focus here was PokéShipping, I only put the final bout of the match to avoid making it too long. However, if anyone is interested in seeing it in full, let me know and I might decide to write it.


End file.
